The development of the Innovative Technology Test Centers, known in English as Sandbox, will also be supported by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF), an American investment fund with a portfolio of $285 million and 29 years of activity in Ukraine and Moldova.

Members of the WNISEF board met with Energy Minister Victor Parlicov and State Secretary Cristina Pereteatcu, in charge of digitalization of the energy sector, at the end of last week. During the meeting, Cristina Pereteatcu presented the concept for energy innovation test centers and a roadmap for the implementation of the concept in the Republic of Moldova, developed with the support of the United Nations Development Program.

Thus, the Sandbox proposals, coming from economic agents, will be approved by a Council, the secretariat of which will be maintained by the Ministry of Energy, and each Sandbox is to be approved by a Government Decision, which will list all regulatory exemptions and limit them in time and scope. The powers of the Government to issue such authorization are to be established by law.

In order to facilitate the activity of innovative companies in the Sandboxes, the possibility of exemptions from a number of acts is being examined, including:

a. Permits, land use and regional planning rules;

b. Energy rates, which are set based on rules;

c. Tax administration rules (but not tax rates);

d. Customized audits and oversight rules for each project;

e. Rules on record keeping processes;

f. Rules for grid connection, mining, environmental protection, nature conservation, water management, cultural heritage protection.

A Sandbox is a special regulatory regime that allows businesses to experiment with new innovative products, services and business models that cannot work within the currently existing regulatory framework, while remaining under the oversight of a regulator and keeping the focus on consumer protection. By harnessing modern market design mechanisms and digital tools, this controlled environment serves as a dynamic platform to test and deploy next-generation energy solutions, effectively overcoming regulatory barriers and fostering a culture of innovation.

A number of developed countries have introduced or are in the process of introducing regulatory sandboxes in the energy sector. These include Austria, Denmark, France, Lithuania and Germany. Moldova is aiming to be the first country in Central and Eastern Europe to introduce a regulatory sandbox, which will allow Moldova to leapfrog in the global competitiveness of the energy sector and attract the attention of the most innovative energy investors, said Cristina Pereteatcu, in charge of digitalization of the energy sector.